To help with the population decline of the world’s natural pollinators, a team from West Virginia University (WVU) has created BrambleBee—an autonomous robot inspired by bees.

The robot is tasked with pollinating bramble, blackberry, and raspberry plants in a greenhouse, utilizing mapping and localization techniques to execute precise path planning, motion control, and manipulation.

“BrambleBee first obtains up-to-date information about flower cluster locations and pollination readiness by making an ‘inspection pass’ of the greenhouse,” says Yu Gu, one of the project’s researchers, according to TechXplore. “As BrambleBee drives around, nearby flower clusters are detected using the on-board camera. The locations of the detected clusters are then recorded into a map of the plant rows.”

After its greenhouse inspection pass, the robot calculates the shortest travel path to move efficiently into an ideal pollinating position, all while avoiding obstacles. The mason bee in particular served as a design inspiration. It locates a group of flowers, keeps track of their location, and uses this data for path planning.

“Once parked at a pollination location, BrambleBee scans the plant and builds up a more detailed map,” says Gu. “It will then use the manipulator to access each flower that needs pollination.”

At the end of BrambleBee’s robotic arm is its pollination mechanism, which completes its mission without causing damage to the plants.

“The project allows the development of a complex autonomous robotics system that can work in a common agriculture setting,” says Gu. “The precision localization, evaluation, and manipulation of small and delicate plant parts provides fundamental capabilities for enabling a variety of other precision agriculture applications such as automated irrigation, fertilization and harvest, monitoring plant damages, as well as weed and pest control.”

Next, the team will focus on improving efficiency, efficacy, and autonomy.

Want to see BrambleBee in action? Check out the video below.